How to be a Knowledge Ninja

THE NINJA APPROACH TO MEMORY

THE NINJA APPROACH TO MEMORY

As much as we all like to feel we’re above such distraction, and as much as we beat ourselves up at our regular lapses into spectacular bouts of procrastination, it happens.

But the thing that university gave me – that was much more important than the piece of paper I could use to inflate my salary expectations – was a deep sense of curiosity, a thirst for knowledge and understanding about how the world works, and excitement at finding out what makes people tick, what principles or politics are worth fighting for, how the world and society should develop. I’d finally learned that there is nothing as exciting as asking big questions, knowing full well that you’re unlikely to get a simple answer.

Ruthlessness doesn’t mean cheating or being unethical, but we do need to be much bolder in how we deal with ourselves and with others. In particular, we need to be ruthless with how we protect the most precious resource that we have: our attention

the middle of the panic of that deadline is a calmness, because all choice has been removed. There isn’t the time anymore to procrastinate or even work on something else: meeting the deadline and working like a Trojan to get there requires all of your attention.

those final hours before the deadline, as you struggle to get everything finished, you have no decisions to make about what you should be spending your time on

’d like you to think now about what it is that drives you. What’s it all for? Is it really about getting good grades, or do the grades matter because they make your mum smile, or contribute to a bigger life plan of yours? Take a few minutes to figure it out.

One of the best ways to achieve a sense of Balance is ‘backgrounding’. Learning to push things into the background until we’re ready to shine the spotlight back on them is an important skill

There’s also peer pressure at play here – we want to feel accepted and avoid the ‘FOMO’ feeling (fear of missing out).